Today's automobiles exhibit increasing complexity of design in terms of added features and related user interface mechanisms. Increase in the number of vehicle inputs, combined with limited space in vehicles, results in reduced opportunity to adequately label all of the inputs and explain associated functions. Also, diverse designs for similar inputs, combined with similar designs for diverse inputs, leads to confusion, even among experienced vehicle operators, as to functions associated with new inputs for new features, as to functions associated with new inputs for old features, and as to functions associated with old inputs for old features where new inputs are similar in appearance to the old inputs. This confusion is further compounded for less experienced vehicle operators, such as new drivers and experienced drivers of an unfamiliar vehicle model.
Vehicle operators trying to identify vehicle operation inputs can, in some cases, consult a manual, but may not know a name to use in a provided index, and/or may have difficulty identifying a component on a provided illustration. Also, vehicle operators experimentally utilizing inputs in an attempt to determine their associated functions may accidentally trigger an undesired function (horn, alarm, etc.), or be unable to identify the function under the test conditions (fog lights in the day, windshield defrost in the summer, etc.). Further, even where a function is identified, a vehicle operator may experience difficulty utilizing the function properly, and may still not know the correct name for indexing the function in a manual.
Today's vehicles, therefore, suffer from the inability to quickly and easily provide vehicle operators with explanatory information, such as function and/or instructions for use, associated with a functional input. Today's vehicles can further benefit from provision of an instruction tool that instructs users on performance of vehicle related tasks, particularly in association with vehicle maintenance and proper response to an emergency situation. Therefore, there is a need for a vehicle operator system and method that can quickly and easily provide vehicle operators with explanatory information relating to vehicle functions and vehicle related tasks. The present invention fulfills the aforementioned need.